NRC reports that 63 sites in U.S. already have dry cask storage installed

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has published a map, dated November 2010, showing that 63 nuclear power plant sites in 33 states -- both operating and permanently closed plants included -- already have dry cask storage installed for high-level radioactive waste. Another 10 sites have applied for permission to install dry cask storage. Only 11 sites in the entire country, storing high-level radioactive waste in indoor pools, have yet to apply to NRC for permission to construct an "independent spent fuel storage installation" or ISFSI -- dry cask storage. As shown in the NRC graph at the left, almost all pools in the U.S. will be full to capacity by 2015, requiring dry cask storage if those reactors are to continue generating high-level radioactive waste.